Engaging Landscape Architecture Archives with the European Heritage Cloud

Landscape architecture (LA) archives safeguard Europe’s designed landscapes, yet remain fragmented, unevenly digitised, and largely absent from European digital infrastructures. Building on the Network of European Landscape Architecture Archives (NELA, 2019) and the COST Action CA23128 “ConnectLAA” (2024–2028; ~150 members in 35 countries), this project addresses low digital maturity, heterogeneous metadata, and minimal engagement with the European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage (ECCCH). It will bridge the LA archive community with ECCCH, mobilising under‑represented cultural heritage institutions (CHIs), expanding the ECCCH community, and strengthening capacity for interoperability and digital continuity. Leveraging NELA/ConnectLAA, it will channel existing momentum toward ECCCH tools, ensuring uptake builds on—rather than duplicates—prior work. Current ECCCH engagement shows minimal participation from landscape CHIs, revealing a sector‑wide readiness gap. The project targets archivists, curators, librarians, researchers, and landscape professionals across Europe, prioritising Central/Eastern Europe, the Western Balkans, and the Baltics, with multilingual materials where feasible. By mapping institutions, training practitioners, producing actionable guidance, and coordinating with ECHOES, it will create concrete, scalable entry points for LA archives to join the Cultural Heritage Cloud.